Fellow Guildford cabinet members, I have returned from my tour of duty to spread our superior and awe inspiring ways to the new NNW Guildford (Mid/North Wales). Here follows a brief summary of events ...
1. Left at 11am ish Friday to meet Minister of Cakes and Chris "Fugly" on the M40. They're heading up in a van as Fugly has no bike license due to being Robocop and Clare still wanted to take her bike. Oh, the Chris thing: take Guy Pears's memory issue in Momento and add futuristic coronary bionic implants, and you have Chris. Met them, loaded my bike onto the van, then took on the driving to Dolgellau, as obviously allowing a woman to drive on Welsh roads would be plain lunacy.
2. Arrived at mansion rented house in the evening. Off loaded bikes. Starting drinking cider, then got an SOS call from Hong (ultimate SV rider - seriously A LUNATIC) who'd broken down somewhere in England. Back in van and off to the rescue. Returned with a tatty blue SV in van, continued drinking cider and the Minister for Cakes fixed us dinner. I knew we brought her for some reason.
3. First days riding started with the hilarity of bump starting Hong's bike, and his down right illegal exhaust waking everyone up for miles around. It had rained overnight but was sunny. Then the ride began. It was a completely new experience. Never have I ridden in such a challenging environment. At several points I was going down a very steep mountain, rapidly approaching an off camber hair pin bend with no external barriers and a certain death cliff on the outside, with mountain run off water creating a skid pan right at the apex. Proper pantpooing territory, but FUDGE ME it was epic! Videos to follow.
4. Returned home and knocked together a Rogan Josh with the Minister of Cakes, drank more cider, played and lost at scrabble. Found out the house was infested with spiders as big as dinner plates. Smoked lots of fags.
5. Day 2 saw Paul the 6th and Rob head home and Clare hang back to keep Fugly entertained. Hong adorned Clare's sequin bikini from AR12, for reasons nobody really knows, and subsequently wear it for the entire day over his leathers. So Christopher, Hong and El Presidino set off for more epic road in the unexpectedly awesome weather.
I've never ridden so fast in my life, nor followed an SV ridden so hard. Wales is an SV paradise, where the extra power of the gixxer is hard to utilise with the lack of straights and constantly flowing low speed bends. With Hong leaning the bike over into head down territory, the SV was just as quick as both gixxers.
The best part is that there really were no moments. Hong did one or two dubious overtakes. I had to bottle one overtake, and I ran wide on one corner which incidentally was the furthest I've ever had the bike leant over. But apart from that, it was smooth successful lunacy. Minster of Cakes and Fugly also joined us for a picnic half way round and an ice cream later, while Hong's bikini was admired by all. Vids to follow.
6. Returned back to the mansion for a Minister of Cakes made spag bol, alcohol and screen of Momento for Fugly's benefit!
7. Got up to the third fried brekkie of the weekend then loaded up the van and blasted off home with broken rear light relays and therefore non working brake lights.
Summary: Perfect SV territory. Throwable corners all day, with very few power sections. Power wheelies, two wheeled air, and ejector seat action aplenty. Terrifying and beautiful, but we were extremely lucky to get good weather. Very little traffic, so constantly utilising the whole road. Definitely the best roads I've ever ridden. Far superior to the last ride in Yorkshire (although the partay atmosphere at home was way better at your place Paul
)
One thing I would say is the roads are definitely only suitable for experienced riders or those that know their limits and ride within them, because there is no room for error! A few times I had to accept Christopher (who's a very rapid rider) was riding beyond my ability and let him go. If I'd tried to keep up, I would've died. End of!